The air is finally starting to cool down a bit. Halloween is still about 2 months away, but it's getting close enough to start getting excited. Festival of the Lost used to be one of the most exciting and fun times in Destiny for me. I absolutely love the decorations and music and just general atmosphere of the tower during this time. If you have a sharp eye, you probably caught me using the phrase "used to be" rather than "is." The atmosphere and everything is still there at the tower, and I still get so excited every visit, but the event itself has taken a nosedive in terms of fun and replayability ever since Haunted Lost Sectors (I'll call HLS) were introduced. Haunted Forest was one of the first times I ever just got excited to play just to play. The rewards back then were more mediocre than they are now, but that wasn't the point of the event back then. Back then, the event was made to be enjoyed. You got on and could play as much as you wanted, and then you didn't have to touch it when you were done. Nowadays, with the HLS are just the exact same experience over and over and over and over and over and over and... Recycled environments with the exact same mechanics as each other. Once you've played it once, that's all there is to it. Doing it again will be just for loot or progress. If you've got all your progress done and satisfied with your loot, there's no reason to run it ever again. It's not fun, aside from maybe the first couple times, and it's repetitive. The Haunted Forest, however, was a real treat. It had an objectively better atmosphere for a Halloween event and each run had random modifiers that made each run different. The replayability was also insanely better as your power and skill had a direct influence on how far you got. It was great incentive to drive players to keep trying to see how far they could get. The mask mods also gave insane buffs that you can't get elsewhere and made the experience really refreshing. I know the reason they removed it was because they vaulted Mercury, but honestly, they could easily just unvault it and adapt it to today's sandbox and it would be a blast. If they say "but that wouldn't make sense lore-wise" is a hypocritical reply as there are so many other things that make even less sense lore-wise and they double down and reinforce, such as those white plot armor shields. We already have access to the Vex network and even reached a branch of the Infinite Forest this episode, so there is literally no lore reason we can't have it back. To me, the reluctance to re-add it simply feels like the bigwigs in charge are just being stuck up and stubborn. I really want the Haunted Forest to return. I really really do. I know it would be a huge hit if it were touched up for today's sandbox, especially if you go deeper into the rogue-like style with mods like the masks used to give.